The Sky Opened Up and The World Fell Apart
by AuthoressThroughTime
Summary: Sometimes working in a hospital was hard enough without portals opening in the sky and aliens attacking the city, but you've just got to deal with it. Though Stephen Strange would really rather not, especially when said aliens are tying to kill him and Christine. (Takes place during the Avengers, but focuses on Strange, because hey, he was in New York too)


**So I was wondering what Strange must have been doing during the Battle of New York in the Avengers because he must have been in New York at the time. So this happened. Though I'm not really sure where anything in New York City is, especially not relative to the portal, so I probably took some liberity location wise. Anway, enjoy.**

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It had been a slow and boring afternoon, however; that was until a portal had opened up in the sky and aliens came pouring out. Doctor Stephen Strange had of course been in the hospital at the time, thank God not in the middle of a surgery, and glancing out the window of his office revealed the event that had him tyring to reassure himself he wasn't hallucinating. The portal was miles away, the aliens no where close as of yet, but that didn't stop the sound of screaming to echo, much to his annoyance. Some people ran in from the street to ensure they got shelter somewhere, if the aliens did spread across the city. Others left, either to find shelter elsewhere, went in search of loved ones, or really just to escape the city itself.

He quickly tore his gaze away from the chaos envolping the world outside to instead focus on the chaos spreading through the hospital. He was a doctor first and foremost, and there were people who would need help. He made his way through the halls on his way to the operating rooms. Sometimes pausing to give instructions to the nurses determinedly trying to do their jobs in the face of this bizzare situation, sometimes directing a person or group of people to a room where their loved ones were. Sometimes glancing out the windows he passed to check on the progress of the aliens.

He was about to rush through the double doors to the hallway leading to the operating rooms when a hand grabbed his wrist. He came to a halt and swung around to come face to face with a grim looking Christine Palmer.

"You've seen whats on going outside?" She asked unnecessarily, and Stephen had to resist rolling his eyes.

"Its a giant portal in the sky and a swarm of aliens. How could I have missed it?"

She didn't comment on his blatant sarcasm as she normally would have, merely stayed focused on the job at hand. "You'd better be ready for surgery then, we'll probably get a lot of peopel coming in as we're the closest hospital that's not in the middle of things."

"That is why I came down here," yeah, that's why he came, it definitely wasn't to come check on her, not at all. "Though as you seem to be forgetting I'm not an ER doctor."

"Oh don't give me that," she snapped. "not right now." He raised an eyebrow, it was rare for Christine to be angry, she usually had the patience of a saint. The stress of this situation was getting to her already it seemed, or maybe it was just his attitude.

"Alright, alright," he held up his hands. "no need to be like that." She huffed slightly before turning and walking away, a clear sign to follow her. Once they made it through the door it was abundently clear where the most chaos was. Doctors, nurses, interns, lab techs, everyone was running around, prepared for the casualties sure to come.

Sure enough people began coming in with injuries related to the alien invasion. At first it was mostly just people with injuries from the debris of destroyed buildings, streets, and cars. Though it didn't take long for people to get brought in with severe burns and lacerations caused by the alien weapons themselves. Strange was soon in scrubs and doing surgeries on people with simple enough head injuries, not something he would usually be doing, but it couldn't be helped.

It was in the middle of his third surgery that the announcement came over the intercoms in the hallway that everyone that could needed to evacuate to the basement. Stephen kept working, ignoring the commotion outside the operating room. If he'd looked up he would have noticed how most the others in the room looked towards the door with worry and fear, but none dared leave. By the time the final stitch was put in it was eeriely quiet outside. Everyone rushed to clean up and prep the patient to move, unscrubbing as quickly as possible, or not at all. As soon as the door was open they were running out towards the elevators, some pushing the bed along with them. Stephen and Christine were the last two out of the room.

When they were about half way there Stephen realized that Christine was no longer along side him. He quickly came to a stop, almost tripping over himself while doing so. He spotted her frozen staring outside of a window. He glanced back towards the group who continued on without them and with frustrated sigh he ran back towards Christine.

"What are you doing?" he demanded once he reached her, and tugged on her arm. She didn't move. He looked out the window to see what she was looking at, only to freeze as well. There outside were the aliens; some stalked along the street, some flew, and some were climbing on the sides of buildings. Then shadowing the whole street was a giant alien, that was covered in armor, and sort of resembled a whale. A whale that was flying in the sky; Stephen could have laughed if this was a different situation. Christine was the first to snap out of it as she shook her head and turned sharply to look at him.

"Let's get out of here," she said determinedly, trying to mask the shake of her voice. Stephen didn't need to be told twice. The two doctors ran the way they were originally going, he shortened his stride somewhat to allow her to keep up. Then there was a roar from outside and something green whirled by the windows. It crashed into the next floor up, causing the building to shake. They had to quickly come to a stop as whatever had just crashed into the hospital caused the roof ahead of them to crumble and come raining down. They were cut off and alone.

They glanced at each other with wide eyes, before quickly turning to go back the way they'd come to find a different route to the elevators, or even the stairs. The power to the hospital cut out, leaving everything in dim twilight, making it harder to see, and heightening their fear.

"What was that thing?" Christine asked breathlessly as they continued to run.

"I don't know," he answered out of breath as well. "I don't intent to find out either." The end of his sentence was followed by the sound of more breaking glass, parts of the building collapsing, the roars of that green thing, the cries of aliens, and the discharge of weapons. Then aliens burst into the hallway behind them, prompting the two doctors to run faster.

Christine screamed and ducked, throwing her arms over her head as a blast from one of the alien's weapons came soaring over her. It instead impacted on the wall of one of the nurses station, causing chunks of wall to fly off. One such piece hit Stephen, leaving him with a cut at his hairline. Blood began to drip into his left eye, making it even harder to see. He stumbled over a piece of rubble and would have fallen had Christine not grabbed his arm and hauled him up.

This delayed them slightly allowing the aliens to come closer, but their goal was insight now. It was only twenty feet until they would reach the door to the stairs. Both of them began to hope, thinking they'd make it. They didn't. Barely ten feet ahead more aliens came bursting through into the hallway. They were trapped.

The two quickly turned around and backtracked towards the first group to turn down an adjacent hallway they had passed. Now both groups of aliens were behind them as they ran.

"What do we do?" Christine asked.

"I- I don't know," and that was the first time in his life that Stephen Strange had ever admitted he didn't know what to do. This made him almost more hopeless then the aliens trying to kill them.

They quickly came upon the end of the hall but there was nowhere to go. Both sides of the hallway that branched off of it had caved in, effectivly making a dead end. There was no way they could go back and choose a different route. This was it. They turned around now slowling backing up, until they couldn't go any further as they bumped into the wall. The aliens stalked forward slowly, knowing that they had their prey cornered.

The doctors were surrounded. Stephen almost grabbed Chrisine's hand in what was to be their last moment, but merely clenched his hands into fists at his sides instead. The humans and aliens stared each other down for a long moment. One group with fear, the other hungrily. The weapons began to glow with a dark blue light; Stephen closed his eyes, waiting for the searing pain that would end his life.

It didn't come. Instead there was the thud of bodies hitting the floor; Stephen opened his eyes in surprise. All the aliens had collapsed, and laid still. He glanced over at Christine who had also closed her eyes, and hadn't opened them yet.

"Christine..." He called softly and her eyes blinked open only to stare in shock at the unmoving aliens.

"How did-" she cut herself off and turned to look at him. Stephen just shrugged, then feeling like his legs couldn't support him any longer he leaned against the wall before sliding to the floor. He reached up to wipe away some of the blood still dripping into his face. A few seconds later Christine joined him on the floor. She sat huddled against the wall, knees pulled up to her chest.

"If this becomes a regular thing I'm moving away from New York," Stephen said to break the stunned silence that had fallen between them. Christine gave a short surprised laugh that seemed higher than usual.

"At least then you wouldn't have to run for your life."

"Yeah, that is pretty awful," this declaration set them both to laughing, if a bit hysterically, even as they both continued to fight to catch their breath, chests heaving. Their laughter echoed hollowly through the damaged, empty hospital, and just for a few seconds it blocked out the sounds of the broken world outside.


End file.
